Tag: Navy

BREAKING: San Jose State to hire Ken Niumatalolo as next head coach

BREAKING: San Jose State to hire Ken Niumatalolo as next head coach

Ken Niumatalolo, the most successful head coach in Navy history, should be taking over San Jose State “within the next 48 hours” according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Niumatalolo’s hiring comes nearly a week after former SJSU head coach Brent Brennan left to become Arizona’s head coach to replace Jedd Fisch who departed to Washington.

Niumatalolo went to 10 bowl games in his first 12 seasons, and from 2015-19, he was selected as the American Athletic Conference coach of the year three times and led the Midshipmen to four AP-Top 25 poll finishes. But after going 11-23 in the three seasons that followed, Niumatalolo was let go after losing to rival Army on Dec. 10, 2022.

Niumatalolo, who finished 109-83 in those15 full seasons at Navy, then traveled westward and took up up a leadership role on Chip Kelly’s staff at UCLA in 2023 and was set to be the tight ends coach in 2024.

“He’s a voice for all of us,” Kelly told The Washington Post prior to the 2023 season. “He also meets with our coaching staff, and just talking about leadership, not talking about scheme, not talking about X’s and O’s, but has brought a lot of different stuff to our staff from that standpoint and has really made an impact.”

With Thamel also reporting that “Niumatalolo will not be running the triple option” at SJSU, there will be several conversations centered around the “X’s and O’s.”After all, Niumatalolo only ran the triple-option at Navy as a head coach and member of the offensive staff from 2002-07.

So if Niumatalolo won’t be running his coveted attack, what will he run? Furthermore, what will his staff look like? It hasn’t been determined which SJSU coaches will follow Brennan to Arizona.

But that shouldn’t distract how good of a hire— on paper— this is for SJSU.

Jeff Konya, SJSU’s Director of Athletics, found a proven winner that could convince fans and the donor base that the program won’t plunge back to irrelevance. Plus, Niumatalolo also understands the struggles SJSU is facing in the NIL space.

Because Navy players are considered federal employees, they aren’t able to rake in NIL deals, which put the program at a disadvantage behind other teams in the AAC.

“But even some of the lower-tier guys for us, we can’t compete with that,” Niumatalolo told ESPN back in 2022.

The hiring also illustrates how far SJSU has come pre and post Brennan era.

Brennan’s hiring in 2017 was a byproduct of potential candidates turning the job down out of the fear the tenure could be disastrous to the point where they’d never get another head coaching opportunity again.

So Brennan, then an outside wide receivers coach at Oregon State, got the gig and produced just three wins in his first two seasons. Then came an encouraging 5-7 season in 2019 followed by the prized 2020 Mountain West Championship.

From 2020-23, Brennan became the first SJSU head coach to make three bowl games and those three bowl appearances marked SJSU’s first time making three bowl games in the span of four years.

“I don’t know how long this will go,” Niumatalolo said in the above mentioned Washington Post article. “Chip and I have talked. I want to make one more run at it, and I feel like coming here has helped me from that perspective.”

And now Spartan Nation hopes Niumatalolo gained the “perspective” necessary to continue the program’s golden era.

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Fans are pumped San Jose State may hire Ken Niumatalolo, despite reports he won’t run the triple option

Ken Niumatalolo without the triple option? Is that even legal?

It’s only been two years since Ken Niumatalolo was a college football head coach and his absence remains palpable.

Thankfully, that may be coming to an end. According to multiple reports, San Jose State is turning the focus on its coaching search towards Niumatalolo, the former Navy coach who’d grind opponents down with his triple option offense.

Niumatalolo went 109-83 at the service academy, winning the American Athletic Conference in 2015, 2016 and 2019 while delivering six bowl victories to Annapolis in 16 season before he was let go in 2022.

He’d been out of the college game since then until UCLA announced he was joining Chip Kelly’s staff as tight ends coach this month. Oddly enough, If he does become a head coach again, we’ll have Nick Saban to thank.

After Saban retired at Alabama, the Crimson Tide hired Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer. Washington then hired Arizona’s Jedd Fisch leading the Wildcats to hire San Jose State’s Brent Brennan.

While you process that, here’s another piece of information that’s hard to digest: Niumatalolo reportedly won’t bring his triple option offense to San Jose.

College fans were equally thrilled about Niumatalolo potentially getting back on the sidelines as they were devastated he’d be doing so with out the scheme most closely associated with his teams.

Notre Dame left out of Twitter user’s Big Brother-Little Brother chart

Should the Irish have been on this chart?

Notre Dame’s independence is a major part of what makes it unique. The drawback to that is except for USC, Navy and Stanford, no annual rivalries are played. That means none within the state of Indiana. Perhaps it was for that reason that the Irish were left out of Twitter college list aficionado Big Game Boomer’s chart listing the “Big Brother” program and “Little Brother” program in all 50 states, if applicable:

The Irish and Boilermakers will play each other five consecutive years between 2024 and 2028. They have a home-and-home scheduled with the Hoosiers in 2030 and 2031. However, neither program is facing each other this year, which possibly factored into the Irish being snubbed. Bur perhaps the biggest factor is that the Irish aren’t conference rivals with either program.

If the Irish join the Big Ten in the future for whatever reason, perhaps we can revisit this list. Until then, that appears out of the question. Oh well. At least the Irish are supposed to have a better year than both programs.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

What the experts are predicting: Notre Dame at Stanford

Who are you picking?

Notre Dame has one game left, and it’s against Stanford. There’s no telling exactly how much a win will improve the type of bowl the Irish get, but they doesn’t mean they want to win this game any less. At the very least, it will be the last game for any players who wish to opt out of the bowl game for whatever reason. So this could be the last of the 2023 Irish as we know them.

Here are some predictions for this game that have been posted by college football experts:

Awful Announcing documents criticism of Jason Garrett

What did you think of Garrett’s season-opening broadcast?

As the Week 0 game with the highest profile, Notre Dame-Navy drew a large audience hungry for college football. That meant extended exposure for fill-in play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle and color commentator Jason Garrett on NBC.

Garrett and regular play-by-play announcer Jac Collinsworth, who missed Saturday’s broadcast, both have become frequent targets for Irish fans for the quality of their announcing. Without Collinsworth, Garrett received the brunt of criticism for the season opener, and sports media website Awful Announcing kept track of some of the tweets containing that criticism.

One series of tweets Awful Announcing chose to focus on were those saying Sam Hartman hasn’t worked with a running back like Audric Estime when the Seattle Seahawks’ Kenneth Walker III had played with Hartman at Wake Forest. Awful Announcing also highlighted tweets criticizing Garrett’s repeated mentions of the Midshipmen’s “mental toughness.” Still other tweets didn’t like what was perceived as Garrett’s lack of enthusiasm or energy.

We’ve had only one NBC broadcast in 2023, but social media already is in midseason form. There’s no place for critiques of Garrett to go but up. Who knows what’s in store for Collinsworth when he presumably returns for the Irish’s home opener this coming weekend?

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

ESPN College GameDay Week 8 Picks for Penn State-Ohio State, Bama-Tennessee, and more!

What game has the biggest chance of being an upset today?

It’s Week 8 of the college football season and fall is very much in the air!

A nearly perfect Saturday weather-wise is coming across the Midwest that we’ll be enjoying but games all day will help shape the look of the College Football Playoff and conference championship races across the country.

As always, ESPN’s “College Gameday” was at the biggest of the games Saturday morning as they’re featuring Penn State’s trip to Ohio State.  Is this when the Nittany Lions finally get over the hump and jump into the drivers seat of the Big Ten East?

Or does Ohio State keep on track for an undefeated date at Michigan to close the regular season in late November?

Here are the ESPN “College Gameday” picks for Saturday’s slate as Houston Texans rookie quarterback CJ Stroud served as the guest picker!

Notre Dame football all-time vs. service acadamies

How long until Notre Dame finally has the guts to schedule Space Force?

Notre Dame football has a long history with the United States service academies as some of the biggest games in the early days of the game were between Knute Rockne’s Fighting Irish and the Army.

Notre Dame has also played Navy each year since 1927 before the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to that run in 2020.

The Irish have also taken on Air Force more than a handful of times with some thrillers coming against the Falcons over the years.

So how has Notre Dame fared all-time against the service academies?

Notre Dame all-time results versus:

ACC

Big Ten

Big 12

Pac-12

SEC

Social media reacts to Notre Dame’s Holden Staes’ touchdown

Nice score by the tight end.

Notre Dame definitely has had a tougher time with NC State than it did against Navy or Tennessee State. Much of that has been self-inflicted with an uncharacteristic amount of penalties that have aid the Wolfpack’s scoring. But [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] has shown capable of fending off whatever adversity that comes the Irish’s win. Fresh off a Wolfpack field goal, Hartman completed a pass to [autotag]Holden Staes[/autotag], who was off to the races with a 40-yard touchdown:

This is the second touchdown for Staes in as many games and the second of his career. The fact that he’s starting to show what he can do after barely getting that opportunity a year ago shows how many players are benefiting from Hartman’s presence. It was hyped up a lot before the season, but now, we’re getting to see it for ourselves. That includes folks on social media as evidenced by these tweets:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through two games

Here’s who to watch against NC State.

Notre Dame dominated its first two opponents in Navy and Tennessee State. Some might be wondering if a challenge will show up anytime soon. We’ll see if one exists when the Irish travel to NC State for their first true road game of the season. Here are those most likely to push the Irish over the top, specifically those who lead the major statistical categories:

How social media reacted to Notre Dame-Tennessee State: Irish side

What are your thoughts on the victory?

It probably goes without saying, but Notre Dame fans are happy right now. Their team followed up a 42-3 drubbing of Navy with a 56-3 thrashing against Tennessee State in its home opener. No, it won’t be this good the entire season, but it sure does instill confidence in both the team and the fan base for at least most of the rest of the schedule. We’ll see how much that confidence will pay off when it’s time to face Ohio State, USC and Clemson.

Even if this game was decided in the first half and thus plummeted interest in the second half, you still had Irish fans celebrated on social media afterwards. After all, since it won’t be this easy throughout 2023, one might as well let it all soak in while they can. Otherwise, it might be regrettable not to later on. Here are some of the best postgame tweets from Irish fans: